More about Movies and media from Nell Minow, who reviews movies each week for Yahoo! Movies and radio stations across the U.S. and in Canada and writes the Media Mom column about families and popular culture for the Chicago Tribune.

Wednesday, May 10, 2006

"Have you seen any comedies?" There was a wistfultone in the voice of the man asking the question. Hewas at Tribeca because he is a programmer for twoother festivals and he was looking for good prospects. He had notrouble finding provocative, searing, troubling,moving, and disturbing films on the schedule, but notmuch luck finding comedies. While the people who buytickets like to laugh, the people who select festivalfilms tend to go for the earnest and sensitive overthe funny. As Woody Allen said, if you do comedyyou're always sitting at the children's table.

But with a little planning I was able to find somegreat comedy moments at Tribeca. Jeff Garlin, whoplays Larry David's agent on HBO's "Curb YourEnthusiasm,” adapted his one-man show into a romanticcomedy co-starring Bonnie Hunt and Sara Silvermancalled "I Want Someone to Eat Cheese With." Garlin,who also directed, based the script on his own life. The main character performs with Chicago's legendaryimprov group, as did Garlin and Hunt in real life. Silverman and Hunt play the women in his life, Chicagoactor David Pasquesi plays his best friend, and thereare marvelous cameos by Richard Kind, DanCastellaneta, and Amy Sedaris.

Garlin, Hunt, Silverman, and the producers spoke withthe press about the film, covering everything fromhaving to make up an outrageous but not descriptivename for a sex act described in the film to their ownworst romantic experiences to the pleasures ofshooting in Chicago (Hunt called it "a big Mayberry"and Garlin was proud to have made the first film tofeature Chicago's famous new "Bean" sculpture) toGarlin's commitment to comedy that is not "quick,convenient, or mean-spirited."

Garlin also appeared on a panel that saluted "AnimalHouse" and its influence on film comedies, along withHarold Ramis (co-screenwriter), Todd Phillips ("RoadTrip," "Old School"), and Jake Kasdan ("OrangeCounty"), whose new satire of network television, "TheTV Set," starring David Duchovny and Sigourney Weaver,was a popular festival selection.

Kasdan said that Ramis' "Stripes" and "Ghostbusters"were his biggest influences. "'Stripes' is a perfectcomedy because it is about lazy, shlubby rebels whoare the coolest possible guys." He said the perfectstructure for a comedy is where "a nebbishy goofballfinds himself in the middle of some large structuredsystem and raises hell." “Low status is alwaysfunny,” Garlin agreed.

Philips said it was the anti-establishment culture ofthe Ramis films that attracted him. He said, "it wasbrilliant to set 'Animal House' in the 1950's, whenthe culture was one of respect for authority." "Actually," Ramis explained, "the movie is set in1963. It concludes with the parade in the fall and wehad it in our minds that it ended the day before JFKwas killed. No good comedy is set in the protest era.‘M*A*S*H’ was set in an earlier war. Someone will befunny about this war some day."

They also spoke about the value of improvising incomedy. Ramis said, "The script was what we would doif we couldn't think of anything better. Shooting wasthe final draft of the script. There are techniques tokeep things fresh in drama. It doesn't depend onsurprise. But to be funny is almost invariably to besurprising. It comes naturally and organically out ofsome very specific moment that can never be repeated." Phillips agreed, "The element of danger keeps comedyalive. There is a fearlessness about great comicactors like Will Ferrell. As a director I am theopposite of a technician. I try to create a nice,loose, environment to make the actors feel safe intrying new things, not to be afraid something mightnot work."

The younger directors acknowledged their debt toRamis, and he acknowledged his to those who wentbefore him. "We ripped off everyone. Everything wedid was derivative of someone else, silent films,Ernie Kovacs, Martin and Lewis, Abbott and Costello.We took from them and added some politicalconsciousness."